I'm not a big musio (muso?) by any stretch, however, have always loved this piece. The young man on the guitar had me for precisely 43 seconds, then lost me entirely.

I'm not qualifed to comment on any other issue here

I pretty much abhore contemporary arrangements of classical music.

I agree with some of the other posts on this thread that the beginning was OK, but it spiraled downwards into a simply horrid conglomeration of noise. I specifically love the violins in the original arrangement (especially because I used to play), and no electric guitarist (no matter how good) can top that pure, soulful sound.

I don't mind a good rock/metal song if done well...but when it comes to true "quality" music, I prefer to stick to classical. I miss living near Chicago (I used to get season tickets to the CSO when Barenboim was the music director).

Of course, Linz will soon remind us of just how depraved our "head-banging" souls really are...

Nah. I'll leave it to the Brandens ...

So, Lindsay Blair, neither "Mysterious" nor a "Stranger," any longer, YOU are a lover of Frippatronics, too... no less than King Crimson? Very cool. Of course, Linz will soon remind us of just how depraved our "head-banging" souls really are...

"I will upload Robert Fripp's 1993 recording of the first part of Bach's Chromatic Fantasy. It features a solo electric guitar, played expertly, and most importantly with a tone that is perfect. I think it is an exemplary use of technology to complete a work that was limited to instruments that had not yet been invented."

Hi Michael,

I've been a fan of King Crimson and Robert Fripp ever since my younger brother turned me on to them a while back. My boyfriend is a fan as well (and guitar player) and it's one of the loves we had in common when we met. (I just dabble with guitar myself.)

I'm 99% sure the arrangement of Chromatic Fantasy you mention isn't played on the electric guitar, but rather either a Chapman Stick, or the closely related Chapman Warr Guitar (which is like a stick but with more high strings, I believe.)

If it's the recording that's on The Robert Fripp String Quintet CD that features the members of the California Guitar Trio, then it's Trey Gunn, the current Stick player for King Crimson, performing the piece.

To most ears, it will simply sound like an electric guitar, but the Stick and Warr Guitar actually work by the player tapping the strings over the frets with the fingertips using both hands (those who remember guitarist Stanley Jordan and his two-handed "tapping" approach to jazz guitar will get the idea of what this technique involves. The strings are not actually plucked, neither with a pick nor fingers. The vibration of the string is created by the impact on the fret from the tapping.) The Stick and Warr Guitars also have a much wider range (lowest and highest notes possible) which I believe is employed in the Chromatic Fantasy arrangement. So to do it on guitar as recorded may not actually be possible for some of the octaves.

On a related note, I live in Southern California and I've seen the California Guitar Trio quite a few times with my boyfriend. They are Fripps former top students from the "Crafty Guitarists" phase of his career, and have devised (with Fripp) a unique style of arranging classical (and popular) pieces for three guitars that has to be seen to be fully appreciated. They also compose original pieces.

If you get a chance to see them, they're fabulous and I think the arrangements of the classical material really work well.

Here's the Web site for the CGT, there are sound and video samples. Highly recommeded.

www.cgtrio.com

Earlier I said that details are fothcoming, but magically, much of my musical choler seems to evanesced. maybe that's good.

Our guitarist is clearly very talented. I've been playing for seven years, and I can't do that*. He can even achieve those pinch and artificial harmonics--those high, wailing tones you hear--which I've found especially difficult to do while playing with a pick**.

So he can move his fingers well. But the direction of the work has been perverted, I'm afraid, because the Canon was chosen to be made into a rock song only because it was popular and not because the metal form was thought to be able to provide a logical extension of the original purpose of the work; I doubt there was much thought in why the metal medium was necessary except for the usual default to making something rawk. All the other elements--the tone, the percussiveness, its harshness, the tempo change, the arbitrary shift to that minor key--while possibly appropriate in a song where their use is more purposeful, are transgressions whose origin is this absence of very clear need.

I would like to get much better so I can play a narrowed and intensified--probably in only two or three voices--version of the Allegro of Bach's third Brandenburg concerto. and somehow, the pizzicato ostinato of Tchaikovsky 4. The Aria of the Goldberg variations! Modern versions of classical works have lots of potential, but probably only if they are approached more as interpretations and performances, and not rearrangements.

I will upload Robert Fripp's 1993 recording of the first part of Bach's Chromatic Fantasy. It features a solo electric guitar, played expertly, and most importantly with a tone that is perfect. I think it is an exemplary use of technology to complete a work that was limited to instruments that had not yet been invented.

Michael

*but I don't play or practice any metal.

**But perhaps this is because I usually play unamplified, and even then not with -that- metal tone that brings out those harmonics. And I don't play a freaking ESP superstrat, but a hollowbody Dean.

I hit "play" with much trepidation, as this is one of my all-time favorite pieces of music, and I dreaded seeing it massacred. I actually enjoyed it up until about 3:20, when he went into a god-awful frenzy of I'm not sure what kind of notes, and I had to stop it.

The sweeping violins are the best part of this piece of music, and it just isn't the same to hear those notes conveyed by electric guitar. I also had the image of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure in my mind the whole time, Joe.

Some rock musicians can pull things like this off, particularly if they are classically trained. This kid didn't reach the bar (no pun).

Jennifer

-- Food Philosophy. Sensuality. Sass.

... on the topic of Baroque music ... I'm actually teaching myself to play the recorder. The only other instrument I've any experience with was the oboe, back when I was at school, so I'm not totally out of my depth. But it's amazing how much one forgets in 14 years ...

I didn't like it much at all. I disliked it. see, I would itemize my complaints here, but I'm simply pressed for time. Details to come later.

Until then, can someone please tell me how I can upload files to a comment? is this possible? I have in mind uploading some recordings of arrangements of old works for new instruments so fellow solo-ers can listen. thanks. (The California Guitar Trio playing Bach's Prelude in Cm, from the second book of the WTK, and Robert Fripp playing the beginning of Bach's Chromatic Fantasy, and maybe more when I remember.)

Michael Allen Yarbrough

As rock transcriptions or arrangements go, it was pretty good.

I love baroque music too, especially Bach. Rand reportedly hated it. Another cause for excommunication!

I couldn't listen right through. Musical murder!

Yes, Lance. I've probably got him doing it five different ways My favorite is the MTV Unplugged version, mainly for the atmosphere. Tony loves to perform. I saw him in concert a few years ago. Magnificent presence. And a lovely man.

The kid is a pretty good player but it'd be to his benefit to learn some Pink Floyd songs note-for-note.

Ross, Tony Bennett does the best Fly Me To The Moon I've ever heard.

I first heard Pachelbel's Canon on the George Winston yuletide album, December. The wiki article is interesting in that it shows how the chord progression has influenced popular music. Quite an eye opener. The electric guitar rendition is reminiscent of Brian May's style.

Re the popular or modern rehashing of classic tunes, Rod Stewart's American Songbook series was an embarrassment, and I caught Jamie Cullum on Parkinson a few weeks ago. I think he did Fly Me to the Moon. I say "I think" because it was so bad I've involuntarily suppressed the memory.

As far as the American songbook itself goes, Diana Krall & Holly Cole are good interpreters.

Sounds like it could have fit into the soundtrack for Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure!

That was definitely a breath of fresh air. The problem with the immortal Canon is that it's so damn popular, which means it's so often played by god-awful orchestras or even *shudder* brass bands. My personal favorite rendition is by Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, an amazing British chamber orchestra.

Though the lapse into minor on this particular video annoyed me more than a little; it seemed to me that it utterly violated the spirit of the piece, which the rest of the arrangment doesn't do.